As computer hardware and software technology continues to progress, the need for larger and faster mass storage devices for storing computer software and data continues to increase. Electronic databases and computer applications such as multimedia applications require large amounts of disk storage space. To meet these ever increasing demands, the hard disk-drive (HDD) continues to evolve and advance. In general, mass storage devices and systems, such as HDDs, include a magnetic storage media, such as rotating disks or platters, a spindle motor, read/write heads, an actuator, a pre-amplifier, a read channel, a write channel, a servo controller, a memory, and control circuitry to control the operation of the HDD and to properly interface the HDD to a host or system bus. The read channel, write channel, servo controller, and memory may all be implemented as one integrated circuit that is referred to as a data channel. The control circuitry often includes a microprocessor for executing control programs or instructions during the operation of the HDD.
The operation of an HDD writing data onto the magnetic disk can be interrupted, or the HDD itself can be damaged, based on fault operations that can occur with respect to the disk-drive write head. For example, one or more of the leads can be disconnected, resulting in an open-circuit fault condition such that no current can flow through the disk-drive write head. As another example, the leads or one or more of the components of the disk-drive write head can be shorted to the housing of the disk-drive write head, such that it becomes shorted to ground. Typical preamplifier systems can include fault detection circuitry to indicate the occurrence of the fault conditions to an associated computer system or user. However, such fault detection circuitry can often consume significant amounts of current, such as approximately 9 mW.